Winging It
by xXDonnaTylerXx
Summary: I never saw it coming, never once dreamed he would affect my life to the extent that he did. And even when it all became clear, I was at a loss for how to respond. But, I suppose, that was what we were all about from the start - improvisation. Sirius/Lily
1. Chapter 1

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**Hello! This is an idea that just kind of popped into my head, a little Lily/Sirius thing from her point of view. Don't want to give too much away, but I'd really appreciate your feedback letting me know what you thought! This is the first chapter, and I don't expect it'll end up being more than two or three at the most, and I want to get the next parts up asap :) Thanks and I hope you enjoy it!  
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**Donna xx**

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Chapter One

If I'm quite honest, before around halfway through fifth year, I never looked at him twice. In retrospect, I guess I like to tell myself that it was because of the slight arrogance he carried, the childish pranks, the insufferable intelligence that he didn't even need to work for... But truth be told, it was his haircut. Something so simple, so shallow, but no way can I deny that that had an effect.

Being teenage girls, Alice and I of course scanned the Great Hall at the beginning of every new year to pick out any newly emerged lookers, but our eyes always skipped straight over Sirius Black, with his then shoulder-length hair, and the rest of his friends in favour of the seemingly perfect older - and off limits - boys.

And the beginning of fifth year wasn't any different, as we were shepherded off the carriages and into the hall, chattering away after being apart for the past few weeks.

"No new talent this year, I see." Alice sighed as she threw herself down on one of the benches, "I was hoping they'd all get gorgeous over the summer."

"I still say Jack Stewart is god's gift to women everywhere..." I remember saying wishfully, looking over my shoulder very un-subtly at the tall seventh year Ravenclaw, surrounded as always by swarms of girls.

"In _our _year!" Alice said, "We need to be realistic, here, Lil! Jack's a player, even if he is hot, and as thick as two short planks from what I've heard."

"Alright," I agreed, "I know. What about... erm..." But, looking up and down the Gryffindor table and regarding my fellow fifth-years, there was still no-one promising. "Remus Lupin?"

"Nah," Alice waved her hand, "Too... Y'know." And she finished there, while my best friend instinct knew exactly what she meant. "Frank Longbottom, mind..."

"_Really?" _I made a face, "He looks exactly the same as last year to me, and the year before, and the year before that!"

"I don't know, I think he's grown up." Alice pondered, looking him up and down subtly as he sat down along the table, "One to consider, maybe."

"Well, you'll not have any competition from me!" I assured her with a grin as Dumbledore stood up to begin his speech, "Looks like another year of 'focusing on my studies', if I'm quite honest."

And, for the first few months of the year at least, I was true to my word, paying little to no attention to the idiotic young wizards in our year - unlike Alice, who had laid claim to Frank Longbottom, even if he didn't know it yet. Looking back, I'm amazed at the fact that I ever lived a life without him in it, was ever capable of concentrating on other things, blissfully unaware of what was to come. It wasn't even as though I didn't know him, it was never a case of him changing my life as soon as we met.

No, the way Sirius changed my life was always much more gradual than that. I suppose, if you trace it back to it roots, the day it began would be the day I decided to join the duelling club after hearing the announcement at breakfast. Alice firmly refused to come along, knowing that Frank wasn't and hoping she'd be able to corner him in the common room one of those nights, and so I went alone to the first meeting, feeling just a bit nervous.

And he was there, even if I didn't notice him, chatting away with his friends and seeming not to listen in the slightest to what Professor Trent was saying. I was fascinated by the concept of duelling even then, and performed relatively well for the first few weeks, still getting my bearings, until...

"Alright class, today we're going to try a slightly different exercise, which should hopefully alter the way you approach a duel in the future. With a partner, I want you to prepare a demonstration," Madame told us, "Perhaps five minutes at the most, of an equally matched duel. And I want every single move choreographed here, no improvisation. You need to be so prepared in a duel that you can predict precisely what your enemy is thinking; what spell they will perform next; what you can do to counteract it, and this task is designed to help you stay alert. Think of it as a performance, and I want to see everyone's work in around," She checked her watch, "Twenty-five minutes. Pair up!"

This seemed exciting to me, I remember; ideas were already flying around my head for the complex sequences I could work out as I searched around me for a partner, planning on approaching one of the other girls before Madame Trent called out.

"No, Black, I'm not having you and Potter paired up again, lord only knows what you'll do to each other. Potter, you can work with Mr. - stop pouting, boy! - with Mr. Lupin, and Black, you can go..." She scanned the group, her eye landing on me, "...With Miss Evans over there."

He trudged over, shooting a comical face at the Professor's back, and I couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Hey." He threw himself down on the floor, and I, a little startled, sat down delicately beside him, "You're Evans, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah." I said politely, "Lily."

"Good to meet you, Evans." he said pointedly, with a little smirk which instantly annoyed me, and didn't bother introducing himself.

"So, um, Sirius," I said, "What do you think we could do for our demo? I thought it would be good if we-"

He shrugged, "Who knows? We'll be fine, she's not expecting much. You've seen the standard of some of the kids in here." I blinked, a little surprised by his attitude, "You're the one that floored Perkins last week with that Impedimenta jinx, right?"

"Um, yeah. But-"

"It was quite impressive," He carried on as though I hadn't spoken, running a lazy hand through his long hair, "We'll be fine."

"Thanks." I said, unsure whether or not he was complimenting me but aware nonetheless that we needed to get on - other pairings had already started 'rehearsing', as it were, "But she said we need to plan out the whole thing, so if we start by-"

"Do you have Herbology on a Thursday, period four?" He once again cut me off, but the fact that he was taking an interest in me meant I couldn't decide whether or not he was being rude. Mentally picturing my schedule, I nodded.

"Thought so. I've seen you on my way back up from Care of Magical Creatures."

"Oh, right then." I was still a little confused at his complete avoidance of the task at hand, "Are you enjoying it? I dropped Magical Creatures at the end of last year; Professor Wilson always seemed a bit useless."

"Oh, he is." He told me casually, nodding, "But it's alright, really. Pretty easy stuff even if he doesn't know what he's talking about. Most of them kind of speak for themselves, to be honest. Particularly the Direpeux."

I laughed, remembering the small creatures from the year before: small, monkey-like in appearance, and perfectly able to imitate human speech, but three times faster.

And after that, we didn't stop talking, chatting away about our different lessons and teachers, ourselves, everything except the task at hand. We weren't particularly interested in what the other had to say, I don't think, but we were perfectly civil. Aware of the time, I kept broaching the topic of beginning to work out our duel, but we never got round to it, and before I knew it Trent's voice was calling out "Thirty seconds, people!" while I realized that we hadn't choreographed a single move. I froze.

"Oh, _crap! _We haven't got anything!"

But Sirius looked calm, and gave another one of his careless, nonchalant shrugs, "S'alright. We'll just wing it, start with a _Stupefy _and we'll go from there."

I felt a bit sick as we watched two other groups demonstrate, for although they weren't perfect, it was clear they'd rehearsed it thoroughly, and other than a small gash on Andrew Stevenson's ear when he ducked too late to avoid a hex, both presentations went smoothly.

"Alright, we'll have..." Madame Trent surveyed us and Stevenson and his partner sat down, "Miss Evans and Mr. Black, let's see what you came up with."

Practically shaking, I remember walking up to the makeshift 'stage' area, feeling deadly nervous in contrast to Sirius' effortlessly cool demeanor. _Ok, _I told myself, _this won't be too bad, just try and take it slowly, and-_

"Stupefy!" Before I knew it, he had begun; swiftly cutting off my train of thought as I instinctively cast a shield charm to block him. He looked a little surprised that I'd reacted so quickly, and I took advantage of his moment of being unfocussed, shooting one of my famous Impediment jinxes - but he was too quick, and efficiently dodged whilst firing several more spells in my direction.

Soon, I was so caught up in staying focussed and fast that I completely forgot we hadn't choreographed a single spell, the two of effortlessly improvising until, before I knew it, Madame Trent had blown her whistle.

"Okay, you two, fantastic work!" She congratulated, with a rare, genuine smile. "You worked together very well - can I just ask, how did you go about choosing the order of the spells and which defenses to use for each of them, when you were planning?"

Still out of breath from being so alert and active, I froze once again, unsure how to respond to that given that we hadn't in fact done any planning, but Sirius was quite the opposite. Unlike me, he looked totally unruffled and if anything, a little bored, as he reeled off an answer that sounded like it came directly from a textbook about why exactly we had supposedly planned it as we did.

Looking back now, the whole situation was just so _Sirius, _but at the time I think I barely even registered him. We parted after that session with a "Catch you later" and it was the same over the next few months - sometimes we were in a group together, sometimes we weren't, I honestly paid no attention. God, I sometimes wish now more than anything that I could go back to then, when everything was so simple. That I could have relished every moment I spent with him, as opposed to the utter nonchalance... How stupid fifteen-year-old Lily Evans was.

In fact, thinking back, I'm pretty sure that my dominant feeling towards him was annoyance - it didn't bother me a lot, but something about his cockiness and sureness of himself really got under my skin when I was with him, mainly because deep down I knew that it was justified, considering how truly good he was.

In those days, lessons within each house were split into two halves, and he was in the other, meaning I had no lessons with him apart from Duelling club on a Thursday evening. Through the week, I would never dwell on him, it never occurred to me to think of him - and god knows, it was a simpler time.

And so, my fifth year at Hogwarts rolled on by relatively quickly, with my prefect duties, endless amounts of homework and helping Alice with her schemes to get Frank meaning I was almost always occupied. I realize, thinking on it, that that was the last year of my life in which Sirius Black wasn't always at the forefront of my mind.

By the time exam season arrived, tensions were building, with stories spreading like wildfire about various mental breakdowns, who was expected to fail what, how difficult everyone was finding their revision, and there wasn't a single person in the fifth year who wasn't unbelievably stressed. Sirius and I had been grating on each other in Duelling club the previous week, with both of us screwing up various aspects and blaming each other. And so, when the incident occurred after our Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL paper, we were already at our wits' end.

That Thursday was, ironically, a beautiful day, which was why me and Alice and a few other girls had gone down to the lake after sitting in the stuffy exam hall. We were idly discussing nothing of importance, thrilled that we only had a few exams left, and I was only vaguely aware of the several other students in the grassy area until the call of "All right, Snivellus?" made everyone stop and turn.

It was that James Potter who had called out, and I felt a surge of irritation as I remembered him taking Sirius's side during our mini-argument the previous week in duelling - unsurprising, given that I had never said two words to him, and he was Sirius' best friend.

Anyway, for some reason, even though I wasn't in any way loyal to Snape by that point, it drove me _crazy _that they were tormenting him, forcing me to my absolute wits' end. What did take me by surprise was James' reaction of "I will if you go out with me, Evans!" following my stream of insults that had come from nowhere, so I remember simply responding as venomously as I could and getting the hell out of there.

I even, as I stalked past Sirius, muttered a furious "What are _you _looking at?", taking him by surprise, I think, as he hadn't in fact said anything directly to insult me, and hadn't even been looking in my direction - from nowhere, I'd just had the urge to include him. Funny, that.

Later that night, as eight o'clock rolled around, I was a little nervous about going to duelling club, and ashamed of flipping my lid earlier - but when I got there, it turned out I needn't have worried. Once again, Trent paired me with Sirius, and as always we didn't prepare in the least for our demonstration but spent the allotted thirty minutes talking in a corner.

"Look, Sirius, I-"

"I'm sorry, Evans." He cut me off before I'd even begun, and took the words right out of my mouth.

I blinked, "_You _are? I don't know why, I was just about to apologise for yelling at you earlier."

"Nah, it's ok. We were being dicks; it's kind of just the way we are." _At least he'll admit it, _I thought as he gave an accepting shrug, "But I really think it's pointless for us to act like we hate each other."

"You're right," I agreed, "There's no point in vowing to be enemies, it's too much effort." He smirked as I continued: "But for the record, yeah. You were being dicks. You are quite a lot of the time, to be honest."

"Agreed," he said, "And given that you said that, I've got no qualms in telling you you seem like a bit of an uppity cow sometimes."

I could barely contain a snort, "Thanks, Sirius." Like I'd said, on principle I wanted to hate him, but in reality it would just be too much effort. "So, we've both been honest, both admitted that we've hacked each other off in the past... Can we just be friends?"

"Yeah." He said, still smirking, "Yeah, I'd like that. After the exams are over, though; I don't think I can stand to be in your presence while you're still in OWL freakout mode."

I laughed, raising an eyebrow. "Fine! It's not like I want to be around your cocky, over-confidence mode either."

"Fair play, "He said, "Except I probably won't turn that off after the OWLs, if I'm honest."

"I don't think you've ever turned that off in your _life, _let alone..."

And thus, our banter began, as we (as always) utterly ignored Professor Trent's instructions to plan our work, as we delivered our standard knockout, totally improvised demonstration. And, surprisingly, we didn't wait until after the exams were over - from that point on, Sirius Black and I were friends.

By the beginning of the next term, we would become _great_ friends.

And by the end of our sixth year, Sirius Black would come to be more to me than any friend ever had before. And that, I think, was the problem.


	2. Chapter 2

**Apologies for the long delay in getting this up, I've been very slow and there's no excuse! But I hope you enjoy the second part anyway, and thank you so much for the reviews, they were very much appreciated as would be any feedback for this :) Happy reading and more importantly, merry christmas!**

**Donna xxx**

Chapter Two

Ironically, even when he got the ghastly hair cut off, I didn't even notice. I've realised in retrospect that it was the _only _possible reason for me never noticing him before - and it seemed, the reason several other girls in the year hadn't noticed him either. Until then.

Sixth year was the first year when, upon arriving in the Great Hall for the start of term feast, Alice and I didn't carry out our tradition of scouting for boys, given that she was making fast progress with Frank, and they were on the very verge of becoming an official item. I myself had a quick glance around, of course, but by that point I had pretty much given up hope with our year, and as always my eyes skipped straight over Sirius and his friends. What I didn't spot was the fact that seemingly every other girl in third year and above had _not _skipped over them, and already the newly-coiffed Sirius Black was attracting hoards of fluttering eyelashes, re-applying of lipgloss, pouts, girlish laughs and hair-tosses.

But, despite his newly-honed good looks being the talk of the rest of the school, I remained oblivious, and never gave Sirius much thought apart from our banter in Duelling Club. It had picked up right where it had left off at the end of last year, but to an even bigger extent now, and I was genuinely starting to enjoy the time I spent with him as the first few weeks of term rolled past.

We were even beginning to talk about things a little more seriously, occasionally moving away from our witty, inane chats and discussing our lives in general; how school was going; who we liked. While I honestly had nothing to report on this front, he told me excitedly after he'd asked out Abbie Weatherby in our year and she'd accepted, and in this way, we became much closer, although we still never saw each other outside of Duelling.

What _was_ new that year, though, was the rearranging of the halves in which the year group was split, meaning we were now finding ourselves in classes with entirely different people. I still didn't have any lessons with Sirius and co, but I was thankful that I still had Alice - She and Frank now being an official couple (and sickeningly affectionate, I tell you!), I was spending less and less time with her outside of lessons, and it was making me a little uneasy.

"Alright, Sixth years, I'm not going to say it again!" Barked McGonagall at the beginning of a Transfiguration class, around a month into the term, "You can listen, and you can listen now, or I'll have you all in to help out with my first year lessons!" If any prospect were to shut us up, that was it.

"Now I want you working with someone different today, please. I'm glad you all get on so well with your friends, but you're a lazy bunch, and I want you concentrating today. And that means new partners, so pair up! Alice, I'm not going to say it again..."

And so, after a lot of sighing on our part, the class moved to sit beside someone new. I myself was next to Rob Davison, a new addition to my Potions, Transfiguration and Defense classes, who I got on very well with - not that I had any idea what _that _little friendship would become, at the time. Meanwhile Alice was working with Jasmine Patil, the biggest gossip in the year, and moaning about it pretty much non-stop.

"So, today we move beyond the recapping of the Ordinary Wizarding Level work with which we have been preoccupied, onto a more advanced form of transfiguration regarding..."

Thinking over it now, it was a pretty standard lesson, on what I thought was going to be a pretty standard day - but as it turned out, it was crucial. Not in the sense that anything major physically transpired - in fact, it was one of the most average in history. But it was so absolutely integral in determining the course of my life from that point on that to me, there might as well have been some huge, life-altering event.

The only thing I still struggle to work out is whether it was similar to winning the lottery, or being unexpectedly hit by a tsunami.

Anyway, as I said, the lesson was average to the extent that I can't actually remember what we covered, but the end of it is what stands out in my mind.

"Will we be working together next time, do you think?" Asked Rob as we packed up, while I failed to notice the hopeful look in his eye.

"I'm not sure." I replied casually, attempting to force my textbook into my bag to no avail. "I think-"

"Miss Evans?" I spun around at the sound of McGonagall's voice, who was rolling up and sealing a piece of parchment as she spoke, "I was wondering if you could possibly take this down to Professor Jacobs for me."

"In Care of Magical Creatures? No problem." I smiled, walking to her desk to take the letter from her.

"I'll go with you, Lil, I've got Herbology next so I'm heading down that way anyway." Alice said from the door, and I noticed an odd, slightly bemused expression make its way onto her face as she finished her sentence. Confused, I turned to face the same direction as her, and saw Rob Davison holding out my bag with a smile on his face.

"I put that big book back in for you, to save you the trouble." He said as I took it from him with a smile of thanks, "Bye, Lily." And I didn't think on it, stupid as I was, as he left the room just ahead of us.

I didn't notice the fleeting, slightly knowing smirk on Alice's face, either, as we made our way down the vast, sloping lawns.

"Have you got Potions next?" Alice asked casually as we reached the outskirts of the forest, "You don't want to be late for that."

"No, I've got a free." I replied, realising that there was a Care Of Magical Creatures class already assembled, "But it's not like Slughorn would mind anyway, he-"

"What are _you _doing down here?" I was cut off by Sirius, who had detached himself from the throng of students waiting for class to start, "You've made your snobby little opinions about Care of Magical Creatures evident enough times, I'd expect you to keep well away from here." He grinned as he pulled me into a casual hello hug.

"Oh, my snobby little opinions about your so-called subject are still firmly in place, don't you worry." I teased back, "McGonagall sent us with a message, can you give that to Jacobs?"

"Yep." he said, taking the scroll, "Stupid old knacker's always late, so I-"

"What's that, Mr Black?"

"Oh, god." Sirius muttered under his breath, before turning to his angry-looking professor, "Nothing, Sir! I've got a message for you here," he shot me and Alice a pained look, with a reluctant "Catch you later," before turning his back and taking the letter over to Professor Jacobs.

"Sorry, but what in the _hell _was that?" Alice demanded as we made our way back up towards the castle, her expression one of shock and slight reverence.

"What was what?"

"You know Sirius Black?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"You, like, _know _him? As in casual hugs, rampant flirting know him?"

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing, "You thought I was flirting with Sirius?"

"Um, _yeah._" Alice looked at me as if I were insane, "Lily, how did you even get to be on such good terms with him? He's gorgeous!"

"Ew, you really think so?" I remember being genuinely surprised; as stupid as it sounds now I had never even considered him up until that point. "Well, I know him from Duelling, we're quite good friends. But I'm not sure about him being good looking; I guess I've never really thought about..."

But then I _did _think about it. And the end of my sentence trailed off, entirely forgotten as my brain began to whir. Brand new feelings were making themselves known inside of me that I hadn't seen coming in a million years, thoughts ticking over as I considered what Alice had said.

"Ahaa, but you're thinking about it now, right?" Alice asked, a smug smile on her face, "Even if you have been literally blind, you can't deny he's gotten a little bit tasty over the summer."

No, I couldn't. And this was all just a little bit too much to handle. I remember wondering what the hell I was thinking - until then, he'd just been Sirius. At first, the slightly annoying, over-arrogant occasional duelling partner, who gradually became the begrudgingly respected aquaintance, the mate, then the genuine friend... But now? What _was _this?

Oh, poor, confused little sixteen-year-old me... Little did I know, it would take a hell of a lot before I realised what exactly it was I felt - and still feel to this day - for Sirius Black.

And so, I gradually began to look a little differently at him, starting in our next dueling club meeting that Thursday evening. I had to admit, he did have a great smile. And great cheekbones. And the way his hair fell just that little bit in front of his eyes since he'd had it cut... But, at the same time, I couldn't see past Sirius, the kid with the long hair who I'd always dismissed and who I just couldn't imagine seeing in a romantic way.

There were a good few weeks when this confusion was constantly on the back of my mind, flitting between genuine consideration and 'never in a million years' - and all this, unhelpfully, came at the same time as things started to happen with Rob.

As he'd hoped, we had continued to work together in Transfiguration, and I had to admit the lessons were more enjoyable because of it - there was nothing that particularly stood out about him, but he was funny, and nice enough. Given that Alice and Frank were now pretty much joined at the hip, I found myself looking for other company in the evenings, and sometimes that just happened to be him.

The first time we sat together in front of the fire in the common room, we just chatted about the essay we'd been set and other light topics, but as time went on we'd started to become more friendly, talking about more personal things; our family, our backgrounds. And then, that one evening, we broached a different topic for the first time.

"You know what, I officially give up on this homework." Rob declared, throwing aside his textbook.

"Yeah, because you've been putting _so _much effort in!" I smiled, "That book's lain open on your lap for the past two hours without you looking at it once."

"Ah well, McGonagall can deal with it." He put his work back into his bag and I did likewise, myself having done none of it either. "What were we talking about?"

"You were telling me about going out with Jackie Taylor in fourth year." I said with a smirk, relaxing further back into the sofa now that I'd officially given up on studying.

"Oh yeah." He grinned, "Well, it was at the start of the year, when the girls all got pretty and the boys all realised they had hormones. When all the big name couples of year four were forming."

"I get you. Remember Nick Stevenson and Lucy Abbott?"

"Yeah, around their time. And then my friends got in on the act; Dan asked out Ellie Watson, Ted was with Rachel West, and so I panicked."

"The joys of peer pressure," I laughed, "And so you thought it would be a good idea to ask out _Jackie_, of all people?"

"Don't judge me, ok. She was basically the first girl I ran into, after convincing myself that I needed to get me a girlfriend."

"Such a romantic," I teased, shaking my head slightly, "How long did that last, then?"

"Let me think," He put on a serious expression, "If I remember the dates, add up the time..." Rob muttered under his breath, seeming to count something on his fingers, before looking up, "All in all, a little less than a week."

I couldn't help but splutter a laugh, and he joined in, "Shameful, isn't it. Anyway, it was probably a good thing, she's turned into a right... Well..." We both glanced furtively over to the corner where she was perched on one boy's lap while fluttering her eyelashes at three others, "You get my point. What about you, then?"

"Me?" I was a little taken aback, "Well, I um..." Truth be told, I had even less experience with boys than he did with girls, unless you counted Severus Snape. Thank god, there had never been a single romantic element involved in _that, _and I most certainly wasn't going to bring it up. I was still struggling for something to say, casting my mind back over previous years, when inspiration struck.

"Well, James Potter asked me out near the end of last year."

Rob's eyes widened, "Really? And you turned him down? Aren't most girls pretty much falling at Potter's feet?"

"Yeah." I considered, remembering the attention he had started to gain this year to the same extent as Sirius, "But to be honest, I think he's a bit of a bullying twerp."

Rob's expression seemed to relax at that, but I didn't pick up on it at the time, "I agree. Him and his whole little crew are a bit up their own arses, I think."

"Oh no," I had to contradict him, "Remus Lupin's lovely, he wouldn't hurt a fly. And Sirius... Well..." My stomach shifted a little - I hadn't really meant to bring him up.

"You're telling me you _don't _think Black's really arrogant?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Well, I..." I sighed. Could I tell him? Rob seemed like a genuine person, and had become a real friend. Plus, I'd already told him a lot about myself, and he had done the same... Oh, I thought, what the hell. Maybe it would be good to get a male perspective on the situation.

"I'm actually a little confused about Sirius at the minute." And thus, I (hugely untactfully) launched into the whole story, about how we'd got to be sort-of friends, our argument, our making up, our becoming even _better _friends, what Alice had said, the attention he was getting - and I had to admit, it felt great to get it all off my chest.

"...And so now I really don't understand how I feel, because on one hand he's this really good-looking guy who's a great friend and really sweet to me, but on the other I sometimes just see him as the annoying, cocky kid from dueling. Plus, there's the fact that even if I did make up my mind, he's still going out with Abbie Weatherby, and... Oh, I don't know."

I exhaled heavily, leaning backwards into the cushions with a hand over my eyes. I think, up until that point, I hadn't stopped to realise how much this was actually getting to me. All I can say now is, it wasn't going to get any easier.

Anyway, I was so caught up in my own little world of teenage self-pity that I completely failed to notice Rob's face gradually falling further and further as I'd talked about Sirius.

"Well, I, erm..." He cleared his throat, clearly trying too hard to act normal, "It seems like you've got a lot on your plate, then. I hope you, er.. Hope you can..." he sighed, "I really hope you're okay, Lily. I of all people really don't want to see you get hurt. Sleep well." And, with a genuine, if slightly pained smile, he headed for his dormitory.

But still, I didn't notice the glaringly obvious, barely thought of it twice. I was far too wrapped up in my own self-indulgent thoughts and focusing on Sirius, laughing away in the corner with James, Remus and of course, Abbie.

Oh, stupid teenage me. Poor, naïve little Lily. If only you'd known how much worse it was going to get.


End file.
